Nexus 7 in South Korea

The international rollout continues as Google has announced that the Nexus 7 is now on sale in South Korea. This marks the ninth country the tablet can be purchased in and the widest availability of any Play Store hardware to date. The first runner up is the Nexus 10 with a whopping 8 countries.

As the old saying goes, "when it rains, it pours down binaries for Nexus devices." That old idiom is proven true once again today, as Google has just uploaded the latest batch of binaries to the Nexus Device download page.

The binaries essentially contain the proprietary hardware drivers that you won't find in AOSP for their specific devices. This go around it's for Android 4.2.2 (build JDQ39) for all of the latest Nexus gadgets: the Nexus 4, Nexus 7 Wi-Fi, Nexus 7 3G, Nexus 10, GSM Galaxy Nexus, and VZW Galaxy Nexus.

There have been a few items in the rumor mill about Google either investigating or planning retail stores, not unlike the Apple stores that famously dot malls and upper-class shopping areas around the world. 9to5 Google reported a tip from "an extremely reliable source" citing a 2013 rollout schedule for a Google store. Then the Wall street Journal, itself a pretty reliable reporter of the inner workings of Google, reported the same thing.

Nexus owners may have a reason to stay up tonight, as a couple of Reddit users report that Android 4.2.2 has begun rolling out to the GSM Galaxy Nexus and the Nexus 7.

There's not much word regarding what the update (which carries build JDQ39) includes just yet, but readers may remember that Google promised a Bluetooth A2DP audio streaming fix in the "next release" of 4.2 after 4.2.1.

Yesterday, we caught a glimpse of an alleged white Nexus 4. While we initially questioned its legitimacy, we ultimately walked away assuming that it was indeed the real deal. However, the question was: is this going to become a thing, or is it simply a prototype?

While today's leak can't really help us answer that question, it does give us a very good look at what the white Nexus 4 has to offer.

The Nexus flood gates seem to have opened today, with both Best Buy and Wirefly not only launching their respective Nexus 4 pages, but also actually having devices in stock. And now it looks to me like Google is preparing a fresh batch of the sought-after sold out devices, as all "Sold Out" product pages were switched to say "Temporarily Out of Stock" a few minutes ago.

Call me crazy, but I don't think this is simply a meaningless change in wording.

If you've been eyeing the HSPA+ version of Google's Nexus 7, AT&T is now offering you a little incentive. If you buy a Nexus 7 with 3G and agree to a 2-year data plan contract, AT&T will give you a $100 bill credit. It's not the best deal in mobile, but if you're planning to stick with AT&T for a while it's free money. What? You're going to turn your nose up at free?

If you like Nexus tablets, Vizio is gunning for your wallet. Today, the company announced a duo of tablets running stock Android. The first is most similar to the Nexus 10: a 10" display with the same retina-melting 2560x1600 resolution, only this one is powered by a Tegra 4 processor. Kal-El may not be a slouch, but let's be real. It's hard to not envy the 72 GPU cores that Wayne is packing.

Happy New Year! It's that time again; with the new year comes our new annual prediction post. I tackled this last year, and rather than do a bunch of crazy, pulled-from-thin-air predictions, I ended up with a link-filled research-fest for the year. It worked out pretty well, so that's what's on the docket for today. First though, I'll take a look and see just how many of last year's predictions and rumors came true, and provide some updates for the more important topics.

Update: At the time of writing, Staples has marked the Nexus 10 "Out of Stock." We'll let you know if and when it reappears.

It's no secret that the Nexus 10 has been sold out in the Play Store for some time now. Anxious would-be customers who are tired of waiting for the ten-inch Nexus with the fabled 2560x1600 (300ppi) display now have another solution, though – Staples has the 32GB Nexus 10 listed in stock, and estimates a delivery time of 2 business days.